Herbal Medicine

Herbal Education at the Lamb Shoppe

Grow your knowledge. Know your plants. Build confidence using herbal medicine.

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Herbal education has been an important part of the Lamb Shoppe & Wellness Center for many years. Through hands-on classes, plant walks, workshops, and our comprehensive Home Herbalist Program, students have the opportunity to learn directly from the plants while developing practical skills they can use at home.

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Whether you're completely new to herbal medicine or ready to deepen years of study, our classes are designed to help you better understand the plants growing around you and how they can be used safely and responsibly.

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Home Herbalist Level 1 | Making & Using Herbal Medicine

Build your foundation and your own home apothecary.

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Our nine-month (March - November) foundational Home Herbalist program follows the seasons and teaches students how to identify, gather, prepare, and use medicinal plants for themselves and their families.

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This highly hands-on program explores traditional Western herbal medicine, local plant identification, wild food foraging, medicine gardening, herbal actions and energetics, safety, and numerous preparation techniques.

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Students learn to make tinctures, teas, syrups, infused oils, salves, medicinal vinegars, honeys, oxymels, poultices, compresses, liniments, lozenges, herbal wines, and much more. Over the course of the program, students have the opportunity to create 50+ preparations for their own home herbal apothecary.

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Best for: Beginners and anyone wanting practical, hands-on skills for using herbs with friends and family.

 

Home Herbalist Level 2 | Understanding the Whole Person

Move from making herbal medicine to knowing how and when to use it.

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Level 2 builds upon the foundation established in Level 1. Students begin connecting herbs with body systems, constitutional patterns, tissue states, and the unique needs of the individual.

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The 18-hour course explores topics such as tissue states, constitutional body types, facial and tongue analysis, herbal safety and contraindications, dosage, and herbal approaches to the cardiovascular, respiratory, digestive, nervous, urinary, reproductive, musculoskeletal, and other body systems.

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Case studies and hands-on practice help students become more confident in selecting appropriate herbs while also understanding their limits and recognizing when outside care is needed.

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Best for: Level 1 graduates ready to deepen their understanding of how to select and use herbs.

 

Home Herbalist Level 3 | Advanced Herbal Understanding

Go deeper into the art and science of herbal medicine.

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Level 3 is where many of the pieces begin to come together. This 24-hour advanced course moves beyond memorizing what an herb is "good for" and explores why plants work the way they do.

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Students dive deeper into phytochemistry, herbal constituents, pharmacognosy, botanical safety, toxicology, herb-drug interactions, detoxification pathways, synergy and antagonism, dosage, pulse testing, constitutional patterns, and custom herbal formulation.

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Students also expand their materia medica with approximately 50 additional medicinal herbs, including both familiar and more advanced botanicals.

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Best for: Dedicated Home Herbalists ready to develop more advanced herbal reasoning, safety knowledge, and formulation skills.

 

Botany in Herbal Medicine

Learn to recognize the patterns plants are showing you.

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Why are lavender and creeping Charlie related? What can a plant's flower structure, leaf arrangement, or family tell us about its potential medicinal properties?

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This 3.5-hour workshop introduces herbal botany through plant-family relationships and pattern recognition. Students learn key identifying characteristics—including leaves, flowers, growth patterns, and plant-family traits—that can make plant identification much more intuitive.

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Once you begin recognizing botanical patterns, you'll never look at plants quite the same way again.

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Open to everyone. No previous herbal education is required.

 

Founders Herb Walk

Learn herbal medicine where it begins—in the field.

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Held annually on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, the Founders Herb Walk brings herbal education outdoors.

Join local herbalists Connie Karstens and Doug Schmoll for a walk through the Lamb Shoppe's herbal gardens and surrounding farm. Learn about medicinal plants, wild edibles, plant identification, traditional uses, harvesting, and the plants growing right here in Minnesota.

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The Herb Walk is open to the community and is also a wonderful opportunity for Home Herbalist students to strengthen their hands-on plant identification skills.

 

Flower Essence Fundamentals

 

Herbal medicine isn't limited to teas, tinctures, and salves. This three-part series introduces students to the unique world of flower essence therapy.

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Explore all 38 Bach Flower Remedies along with additional commonly used flower essences. Students learn the traditional emotional and energetic patterns associated with individual remedies, how essences may be selected and blended, and how to create a personalized flower essence formula.

 

Classes & Workshops Throughout the Year

Not ready for the full Home Herbalist program? We offer many shorter herbal and natural wellness classes throughout the year.

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Topics may include herbal first aid, stress and nervous system support, women's health and hormones, healthy aging, seasonal wellness, home remedies, flower essences, herbal medicine basics, medicinal spices, plant walks, wild foods, and seasonal herbal preparations.

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Learn Herbal Medicine from the Plants Themselves

There is tremendous value in books and online herbal education—but there is something different about standing beside a plant, learning to identify it, gathering it at the proper time, preparing it with your own hands, and understanding how to use it.

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Our herbal education programs are designed to keep that traditional, hands-on knowledge alive while helping the next generation of home herbalists use plants with greater knowledge, confidence, and responsibility.

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Explore our upcoming classes and begin wherever you are on your herbal journey.